"We can't scale 5x using Excel spreadsheets": How Octonomy improved forecasting with Kickscale after a €20M investment

The challenge: Rapid growth without the right infrastructure

When Frank Piotraschke joined Octonomy as CRO in January, he took on an ambitious challenge: to increase revenue fivefold within a year while building the go-to-market organization from the ground up.

"We are essentially operating under the premise that every quarter we have now is the most important quarter in the company's history", Frank explains.

But Octonomy faced critical operational gaps:

No single point of truth

The team was juggling multiple disconnected systems:

• HubSpot as CRM
• Attention for call recording
• Excel spreadsheets for forecasting
• No unified view of pipeline health or deal progress

"What I was missing most was a cockpit—a single point of truth for everything related to sales", recalls Frank. "I need a place where I have information about the deals people are currently working on. I need to know what's in the pipeline. I need to know what they themselves are saying about the direction things are heading. What are the deals saying? And we have a wide variety of stakeholders who look at this data in very, very different ways."

Forecasting in the dark

With 10 AEs in Germany, 10 SDRs, and expansion into the US market, Frank needed reliable forecasting at multiple levels: individual seller, team, and company-wide.

GDPR compliance concerns

Operating in the German B2B market, especially when selling to mid-sized companies with a focus on data protection, meant that standard US tools were not acceptable.

"We are, of course, a German company. We operate in the AI sector for mid-sized businesses, where we have to be very, very precise regarding GDPR, and where we often have rather emotional debates about data protection in Germany and Austria. And when you use American tools there, it's always a bit difficult."

Why Kickscale: Speed, flexibility, and European DNA

Frank evaluated several alternatives, including continuing with Attention, migrating to Salesforce for Clari, or implementing Gong. Kickscale won for three decisive reasons:

1. Built for HubSpot

"You positioned yourselves very smartly there. If you have Salesforce, you can look at a huge implementation toolkit of everything that's available. But for HubSpot, there's relatively little. I think you positioned yourselves very smartly there."

2. Ready to grow together

"We obviously need a partner right now who realizes that we are still a very small company. We are in the middle of a growth phase, at most. We’re a bit of a unique bird. We have huge requirements. But you were able to understand us. You were also able to support us and provide us with functionalities—and develop them quickly—that are absolutely essential for us, such as the forecasting topic."

3. European-first approach

"I often know what it feels like when you have to compete as a small company from Europe against a large, very well-funded, and highly professional American company. You don't always have to come out on the losing end. But what you bring to the table is speed, an understanding of customers, local expertise, and dynamism."

The decision came down to trust and partnership: "Who is willing to adapt to us a little bit? You were able to understand us and support us along the way. And that’s why we chose you."

The implementation: Stakeholder alignment

Frank didn't make the decision alone. Kickscale had to convince several stakeholders:

The Sales Team (AEs)

• Need: Fast, simple forecasting that doesn't slow them down
• Result: Integrated forecasting directly in the workflow

The SDR Team (Marketing)

• Need: Pipeline analytics and lead attribution
• Result: Full transparency from marketing lead to closed deal

Product Team

• Need: Understanding how products are perceived in demos
• Result: AI-powered insights from call recordings show which features resonate

Revenue Operations

• Need: System that integrates with HubSpot without a Salesforce migration
• Result: Single platform that connects all revenue data

"I made the final decision. But I wouldn't have made it if Moritz hadn't said from a Rev-Ops perspective that it works and we can implement it that way. Or if the AEs hadn't said, 'This is what we need, this is what helps me.' So, once we got the green light from everyone, I could say, 'Alright, then it’s Kickscale, let’s buy it.'"

The results: Clarity, speed, and accountability

Single point of truth achieved

"I would describe you as a bold tool provider that has understood that Revenue Operations needs something that doesn't rely on three, four, or five tools side-by-side, but rather, in the best-case scenario, needs a single point of truth above the CRM system."

Forecasting that works

Kickscale enabled multi-level forecasting:

• Individual seller level
• Team level
• Pipeline forecasting (leading indicators)
• Revenue forecasting (lagging indicators)

"We’re essentially forecasting at an individual seller level and a team level. We primarily forecast pipeline because pipeline is the best leading indicator you have for predicting whether or not you’ll hit your target."

AI-powered discovery insights

With custom prompts, Frank’s team can instantly see if sellers are following the Proactive Selling methodology:

"Through very well-formulated prompts—which our market team inputs back into our sales process—we can see very quickly whether the deal structure we require, based on our Proactive Selling methodology, is actually being followed. AI is a huge help here. Being able to standardize these prompts for every deal is incredibly important."

Team adoption

Despite initial resistance, the team got on board:

"You jumped on it very quickly and offered a lot of support, which is why we were able to get the crew on board relatively easily."

Who is Kickscale for?

Based on Octonomy’s profile, Frank sees Kickscale as best suited for:

• Companies with 200–300 employees
• Digital products with fast sales motions
• Sales-led growth organizations
• Teams using HubSpot (or Salesforce)
• Fast-growing teams with ambitious goals
• European companies requiring GDPR compliance

About Octonomy

Octonomy is the leading AI platform for complex knowledge, backed by top-tier European investors. The company helps enterprises leverage AI to unlock insights from their most complex datasets. With offices in Germany and the US, Octonomy serves mid-market and enterprise clients across Europe and North America.

About Frank Piotraschke

Frank brings over 15 years of revenue leadership experience in scaling B2B SaaS companies. Before Octonomy, he spent 5 years as CRO at SoSafe, scaling from €1M ARR to unicorn status with 500 employees. Previously, he held leadership positions at StaffBase and learned his trade at Optimizely, where he worked with VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures.

His philosophy: "As a sales leader, you have two roles. You have to forecast and you have to recruit. Those are your two main tasks."

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